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Free parking returns to beach towns

Salisbury
Published 10:02 p.m. ET Sept. 20, 2014

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Rehoboth has seen an increase in the number of people using the Parkmobile app this summer. The app allows drivers to pay for parking in the city using their phones by either scanning a sticker or typing in a code for the parking area.
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Digging for change, scanning a sticker, hoping you’ll make it to the coffee shop and back without a ticket – these familiar scenes will be gone soon in most beach towns.

As summer comes to a close, so do the meters in Rehoboth Beach, Dewey Beach and Bethany Beach, which stopped paid parking Sept. 15.

Rehoboth has seen an increase in the number of people using the Parkmobile app this summer. The app allows drivers to pay for parking in the city using their phones by either scanning a sticker or typing in a code for the parking area.

In 2013, there were 165,000 transactions through the app, and that number increased by 26 percent this year, city manager Sharon Lynn said.

“More people are using Parkmobile,” she said.

The city also saw a 2 percent increase in revenue from parking meters this summer.

In Bethany Beach, the town implemented Parkmobile at the start of June. The number of Parkmobile users constituted only a small percentage of revenue, Bethany Beach Parking Supervisor Steve Grames said, but as the season progressed, more people began using the system.

“The number of users grew pretty much every week,” he said.

Overall, parking revenue in Bethany Beach increased from $1,520,000 in 2013 to $1,620,000 in 2014, according to preliminary numbers.

To the north, the city of Lewes just launched Parkmobile Sept. 10. So far, city manager Paul Eckrich said he has not heard any complaints.

“Everything is going well as far as I can tell,” he said.

From Sept. 10 to Sept. 18, there were 268 transactions, Eckrich said.

This past winter the Lewes City Council voted to increase parking fees by 25 cents in certain lots around town. They also agreed to put meters at handicapped parking spaces.

The meter fees at the city’s Beach 1 and Beach 2 lots, which Eckrich said were the primary revenue generators, stayed at $1.50 an hour.

Overall revenue for parking meters as of Aug. 31 was up 26 percent from last year, at $322,139.

Eckrich said the change is result of better in-house collection methods, essentially checking in on drivers with delinquent fines. The city hired a full-time employee who was responsible for the collections.